A report in todays newspaper about the NASAprobe that has been intentionally crashed into a comet contains the following
"Russian astrologist Marina Bai was not so happy. She is suing Nasa for £150million."
Apparently the change to the comets course has messed up all her astrological charts and distorted her horoscopes.
Disregarding the ludicrous nature of the claim wha the hell is an "astrologist", is it the same as an astrologer or something different? Or is it, as is more likely given the source (the Metro, a free rag of dubious merits), just a fourteen year old spotty oik of a journalist who has got it wrong?
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
The Moscow News used "astrologist" in reporting this story last April. My guess is that it reflects the authoress's deficient command of English, and was uncritically picked up by the report Bob cites.
Interestingly, though, there's a defect in Google here. Searching Google news for astrologist gives 48 hits, but searching it for astrologist "Marina Bai" yields more, not fewer: 147. But then, when you check the latter hits, you find that many of them do not use the word "astrologist"; they say "astrologer".
OED is interesting here. It define astrologist as "ASTROLOGER (though less frequent and not the preferred term amongst practitioners)." But from the quotes, I'd say a better definition is "a contemptuous term for an astrologer" -- and if so, the journalist chose her term well! One of the four quotes is neutral, but here are the other three:
1954 Life: Carroll Righter is a Hollywood astrologer or, as he prefers to be called, an astrologian. He detests being called an astrologist. ‘An astrologist is a quack,’ he says. (Shufitz note: Talk about your pot calling your kettle black!)
1978 Economist: ... he is thought to have been the illegitimate son of an itinerant astrologist.
1985 Washington Post: I side pretty steadily with history's eccentrics. ‘I don't mean all the mad astrologists and mystics..but simply the mundane eccentrics.’
You see, Astrology is the combination of Astronomy and Cosmology, and since Astronomer and Cosmologist are the correct terms, either Astrologer or Astrologist should be allowed...
What's the classic joke? On the first day of Astronomy class, a student asks what the difference between Astronomy and Astrology is, and the professor answers "Math", to which most of the class walks out.
